


(Love Is) Triangular

by Jetainia



Category: The Half of It (2020), 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
Genre: Asexual Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén, Blanket Permission, F/F, F/M, Figuring Out Emotions, M/M, Multi, The Half of It fix-it, Triad advice, immortal cultivators
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:41:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27169477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jetainia/pseuds/Jetainia
Summary: Ellie doesn't know how to understand her feelings, so she turns to the three people that might be able to help her.
Relationships: Ellie Chu/Aster Flores/Paul Munsky, Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén & Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī, Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén/Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	(Love Is) Triangular

Ellie had never been to this house. Despite everyone assuming that she and this family were friends, Ellie hadn’t really interacted with them all that much. To be honest, it was as much a reluctance to randomly introduce herself to three strangers as it was a reluctance to prove the people in Squahamish right that the two Chinese households knew each other and were friends. Through the limited interaction she’d had with the three of them, they were nice and happy to lend a hand to anyone who needed it.

Which was why she was currently standing in front of their front door and psyching herself up to knock. She could do this. She could totally ask these almost-strangers for advice on her currently very messy emotions. It was easier to ask them than it was to ask her dad, the barrier of strangers meant that she didn’t have to worry as much about what her life would be like afterwards.

She could do this, she told herself again. Adjusting her backpack and taking a deep breath, she extended an arm and knocked on the door. Almost instantly she felt sick and wanted to leave right away. She couldn’t do this. What was she thinking? She couldn’t ask strangers about their love life and how they worked and how they figured it all out! They hadn’t asked for a mess of a girl to turn up on their doorstep with a jigsaw puzzle of emotions inside of her that she wanted them to piece together.

She had just taken a step back to leave when the door opened and revealed Lan Xichen. Ellie saw him take her in with mild surprise, clearly not having expected a visitor, before smiling warmly. His smile made almost all of Ellie’s nerves vanish—though there were a stubborn few that stuck around. This man did not look like someone who would ridicule a girl turning to the only source of information she could find and trust (in this instance, Google was little help. She’d tried and been scarred by the results which were all, if not outright porn, at the very least porn-leaning).

“Miss Chu, is it not?” Lan Xichen asked. “How can I help you?”

Ellie stared at him silently, trying to will the words out of her mouth while her mouth stubbornly remained shut. “Uh…” she managed to force out. Grasping that momentum, she followed it with, “I need help. Kinda. From you. Well, from all of you. Maybe. I don’t really know. Sorry. I’ll just…”

She gestured to where her bike was leaning against a pole and turned to leave, sure that no matter how nice these people were, there was no way they’d want to discuss the mess that was love with a teenager.

“Do you want a cup of tea?” Lan Xichen asked, and Ellie stopped her half-completed turn to look back at him. He was still smiling and looking oh so kind and like there was nothing he’d like more than to help her.

Ellie glanced back at her bike before nodding and stepping into the house when Lan Xichen gestured her through. He didn’t say anything until she was settled on the—very comfortable—couch with a cup of tea in her hands. Ellie was glad about that. She was feeling awkward enough about everything and she needed the time to marshal her thoughts along with her courage (which had practically deserted her when Lan Xichen opened the door).

Lan Xichen settled himself in the armchair opposite her and smiled gently, setting his own tea on the side table. “Now, how can I help? My brother and husband are out back currently, would you like them here as well?”

“No!” Ellie blurted out. She’d just gotten vaguely used to the idea of asking Lan Xichen about his relationship, she couldn’t deal with asking all three of them about it at once. “Uh…that is, I, uh…”

Lan Xichen raised a placating hand, “It’s alright, take your time. If you just want to speak to me, you can just speak to me.”

“Okay, cool. Uh, thanks.” Ellie nodded to herself and drank her tea to give herself time. She could totally do this. Lan Xichen was nice; if she had to choose one of the three men to ask about this stuff, she’d probably choose him. “How do you do it?” she asked abruptly before flushing red and burying herself in her cup.

When she looked up again, Lan Xichen was giving her a mildly puzzled look. “Do what, exactly?”

“How do you…work? How is that… Why…” Ellie huffed a breath of frustration at herself. It was a simple question. Yes, it was probably too personal, yes it was weird as hell, and yes she felt like a fool. But she needed to know. “How can you love two people at once and all be together?” she finally convinced her mouth to say.

Lan Xichen made a small ‘ah’ sound and sipped his tea. “The specific term you might be looking for is polyamory. It is a relationship or an orientation that welcomes more than one sexual or romantic partner at a time. The relationship with each partner does not have to be the same. For example, I love Wei Wuxian in a romantic sense and he is my husband. My brother also loves Wei Wuxian romantically and they too, are married. My brother and I do not share romantic feelings however.

“In simple terms, Wanji and I share a husband but are not involved with each other beyond that of being brothers. We are a V, if you like, with A-Ying as the connecting point. I personally, feel only romantically towards A-Ying, whereas my brother is both romantically and sexually attracted to him.”

Ellie nodded slowly. That kind of made sense. “Romantically and sexually? Is there…is there a difference between romance and sex?”

“Yes,” Lan Xichen said matter-of-factly, relieving Ellie’s nerves of having pushed too far. “Wanji and A-Ying are attracted in both ways, I feel attraction in only one. It is possible to have romantic feelings for someone and not sexual, just as it is possible to have the reverse.”

“So I’m not weird,” Ellie said in relief, talking more to herself than to Lan Xichen.

“For loving more than one person? No, you’re not weird at all,” Lan Xichen confirmed.

She looked up at him, wanting another thing confirmed. “And I can have different kinds of feelings for them but still want to be in a relationship with both of them?”

“Absolutely.” Lan Xichen smiled. It was one of the best smiles Ellie had ever seen.

“I can have a relationship with both of them at the same time and not be weird?” she double checked.

“Yes,” Lan Xichen replied. “Though I will warn you, just as there is ignorance and hatred of people attracted to their own gender, there is the same for people who are polyamorous. The world is not always kind to us.”

Ellie nodded. She knew that, had already accepted that because she thought she was entirely lesbian only to find out that maybe she just needed to find the right doofus to fall for in a purely romantic sense. The myriad of dreams and fantasies she’d thought up about domestic life including both men and women while any fantasies involving sex only involved women made sense now. She was romantically and sexually attracted to Aster, and romantically attracted to Paul. Man, love was complicated.

“Thank you,” she said quietly, and Lan Xichen leaned forward to place a warm hand over her own.

“You are most welcome. I’m happy to help.” He leaned back and offered, “Would you like to join A-Ying and Wanji in the backyard for a while? The rabbits would be happy to meet a new person.”

That, Ellie thought, was an irresistible offer. Adorable fluffy animals and the chance to see a polyamorous relationship how it should be before possibly delving into the mess that was her own love life and trying to sort that out into a workable polyamorous relationship? She’d be an idiot to turn it down.

“I’d love to,” she said.

As Lan Xichen led her through the house to the backyard and the faint sound of delighted laughter started to be audible, Ellie found herself wishing she’d gotten to know the Lan family earlier. Who cared if the only two Chinese families in Squahamish were friends? Lan Xichen was awesome and maybe if Ellie had actually gotten to know him earlier, she wouldn’t have been in so many knots about her conflicting feelings about Aster and Paul.

“Xichen!” came a call from the garden and Lan Xichen suddenly had an armful of laughing man as the person Ellie knew to be Wei Wuxian launched himself into the air so that Lan Xichen could catch him.

She stood awkwardly at the door until the other man—Lan Wanji—came up to her and deposited a soft bunny so black he was almost purple into her arms with a small smile. He went back to the small congregation of rabbits and Ellie followed him, gently patting the rabbit she held as it sniffed her in the search of food. Lan Wanji handed her a lettuce leaf when she sat down next to him and the bunny immediately latched onto it.

“A-Cheng,” Lan Wanji said, gesturing to the bunny Ellie held.

A-Cheng stopped eating for a second to look at Lan Wanji before deciding the lettuce was more important. Lan Xichen folded down onto the grass nearby, Wei Wuxian still clinging to him happily, and picked up a rabbit of his own. Neither Lan Wanji or Wei Wuxian asked what Ellie was doing there, or even who she was. They just accepted that she was there and welcomed her to their backyard full of bunnies.

Ellie grinned to herself and thought that even if she managed to lose Aster and Paul by confessing her feelings for both of them, she would at least have these three. She knew they would be there for her if she needed them, despite not having interacted with them much before this. A-Cheng had finished his lettuce and was shoving his head under her hand impatiently for attention. She quickly resumed petting him and looked around for more food she could give him. Lan Wanji moved a small bucket within her reach and she fished out a slice of apple which A-Cheng happily accepted.

She spent the rest of the afternoon with the Lans and left with an invitation for dinner the next day for both her and her father as well as an open invitation to visit whenever she wanted to. She rode away on her bike with a smile of her face. Today had been one of the best days she’d had in a while.

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting finished on my computer for months because it still feels rough to me but now I'm just throwing into the wild because not every story has to be perfect. Also, there just needs to be more Ellie/Aster/Paul in this fandom because that is clearly the direction the movie was going (ignore the fact that there's no actual Ellie/Aster/Paul in this and it's instead Ellie going to three immortal cultivators for advice about triads, there also needs to be more Wei Wuxian/Lan Wanji/Lan Xichen in the world, okay).


End file.
